Chapter 17:  A Screw Loose of a Toolbox (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Both Pokéballs landed.  
“Pika!”  
“Bulbasaur!”  
“Sparky...  Use your Thundershock.”  
“Solar, Razor Leaf!”  
“Pika-CHU!”  
“Bulba-SAUR!”  
The leaves flew out and were hit by the lightning stopping it from reaching 
Solar.  
“Now Tackle it!”  
“Sparky, use Double Team.”  
Suddenly the Pikachu began to multiply until they completely surrounded Emily’s 
Bulbasaur.  
“What the?...”  
“Emily, only one of them is real!”  
“Solar, keep on hitting them until you find the original!”  
“Saur! Saur!” shouted Solar firing Razor Leaves slowly circling around the 
ring.  
He was about halfway through when the real one, now behind him jumped forward.  
“Thundershock.”  
“Pi... Ka... CHU!”  
“Bulba!”  
Solar fell back hit by lots of electrical energy, he looked a little dazed but 
not past half his health.  
“Solar, try a Vine Whip.”  
“Bulba!”  
The two vines shot forward but the Pikachu leaped over them and ran towards 
Solar.  
“Quick Attack.”  
“Solar, stop Vine Whip and dodge!”  
Solar fell to the side and the Pikachu missed.  
“Another Double Team, this’ll finish it off.”  
Once again the Pikachus surrounded Solar.  
“We need an easier way of finding the real one.  I know, Solar, extend your 
vines to your sides and spin around!”  
He did as told, the vines stretched out of Solar’s sides and he began to spin, 
the vines, though stretched out remained straight and each hit half the circle 
and then the real Pikachu.  
“Don’t stop there Solar, Razor Leaf.”  
Still shocked, so to speak, from the last attack, the Pikachu wasn’t ready to 
counter it and fell down.  
“Pika...”  
The girl recalled it before it could even attempt another attack.  
It must have reached fifty percent damage, by the looks of it Emily would have 
to recall Solar should it get hit again.  
The girl looked like she was carefully considering which Pokémon to bring out.  
“RHYYYY!!!”  
“I sincerely doubt you can beat my Rhyhorn, Armour, he’s invincible.” said the 
girl in a calm voice rather than an overconfident one.  
Even with the type disadvantage, its size and most probable level advantage 
would make up for it.  
“A Ground-type...  Solar, Razor Leaf!”  
“Armour, charge forward and don’t stop until you hit that Bulbasaur...”  
“RHYYYY!!!”  
“Bulba!”  
The leaves hit the Rhyhorn hard, but it appeared not to feel it as he took the 
damage and hit Solar hard, its weight and strength increasing the damage.  
“Recall it, now.” ordered the girl, Emily did as told since the red-head was 
using these rules also.  
“Blossom, your turn.”  
“Another Grass-type, and its even smaller, know this:  Armour doesn’t feel 
pain, he causes it.  Stomp it down...”  
“Blossom, jump up high!”  
It was about to, when a jolt suddenly went through it and made her collapse.  
“Poison...” said Emily in despair.  
“We didn’t heal her after that battle against the Elites...” I added.  
“Then you are an amateur and shall not be coming with me.” said the girl.  
The Rhyhorn leaped up and brought its feet down, the impact causing the dust on 
the floor to fly up everywhere.  
The Rhyhorn shook its head around and I couldn’t see Emily’s Oddish...  Wait a 
moment...  
Now I could, it was on the Rhyhorn’s back and Armour didn’t seem to notice, she 
must have ran under it and climbed up from behind...  
Of course...  
Armour’s tough skin prevented it from feeling some objects, the leaves from 
before bounced off it without making him flinch, that was its strength but 
quite possibly a weakness.  
If it couldn’t feel damage, it might overwork itself and collapse.  
“Blossom! Absorb its strength so you can continue battling!”  
“Oddish!”  
It took as many Hit Points from the Rhyhorn as it could until it reached full 
health.  
The Rhyhorn still didn’t notice until the girl pointed it out.  
“Armour, its on your back.  Shake it off.”  
It brought its feet down to the ground, front legs, then back legs until 
Blossom fell off.  
“Charge into it.”  
“Blossom, use your Petal Dance!” shouted Emily.  
The size difference in the Pokémon would ultimately decide the battle if this 
didn’t work.  
Blossom spun around sucking leaves off the trees and into the twister.  
The Rhyhorn didn’t care and continued charging, Emily looked worried.  
“Emily, don’t despair, I think that Rhyhorn is hiding the damage its being 
given.”  
“Come again?”  
“Its been taking damage, its just not showing it emotionally, just don’t let 
Blossom be hit.”  
“Blossom! Rise up higher!”  
Blossom flew up in the twister before it collided with Armour, the leaves 
taking their toll on him while little Blossom was undamaged by the collision.  
They both landed and turned to face each other.  
Blossom looked a little afraid while the Rhyhorn looked ready for more, they 
both breathed heavily, and the Rhyhorn fell down defeated.  

“I see your scheme, your Rhyhorn doesn’t show how much its been hurt, so you 
tried to use that to your advantage with the rules you made.” said Emily 
confidently as they recalled their Pokémon.  
“And yet you won, as promised, you can come along, I guess.”  
“Nice one Emily.”  
“I won the battle I failed to win last time, now the only loose end to tie is 
Bianca...”  
I thought Emily would start acting vicious again but she brushed off the 
memories of her loss and followed the girl.  
“The Screwloose Brothers are leading scientists in Team Rocket, they do many 
tests on Pokémon.” explained the girl.  
“Unless you’ve already figured it out, I’m Tetsubo and this is Emily, we never 
did get your name.”  
“You can call me Abby.”  
“Okay Abby.  So do you have a plan?”  
“Confront them, I would have used my Rhyhorn but you appear to have taught me 
and him a lesson so I’ll be relying on your Pokémon to beat any that the 
brothers have.  Just remember this is no League Battle, if we lose, there’s a 
good chance their Pokémon will kill us, are you prepared for that?”  
“Of course, we’ve dealt with four organisations in Team Rocket before.”  
“Not that it can be changed but I might not have battled you if you told me 
that in the fist place.”  
“I didn’t think it’d change your mind...  Forget it.”  
I gave up.  

We reached a medium sized warehouse, the doors were sealed shut.  
Abby observed the doors then pushed them open.  
“Hey! No ones allowed in here!”  
“Its a bunch of meddling kids, and...  You!”  
“I’m surprised you use your empty heads to remember me.” said Abby, with no 
real emotion except calmness and sarcasm.  
“So you’re these Screwloose Brothers I’ve heard about.” I said as I stepped 
forward.  
“Turquoise hair...  You must be the one that’s interfered with every other 
group in Team Rocket!”  
“I’m glad I didn’t miss anyone out.” I said confidently.  
“But you’ll never stop us!”  
The two men jumped away from their experiments and landed by each other in a 
confident pose.  
Both wore glasses, one had spiky flame red hair and a purple lab coat, the 
other, a brown bowl-shaped haircut and a green lab coat.  

“We specialise in drugs, and the odd chemical test.”  
“Machinery, genesis, we’re the best.”  
“Stay out of our way, or you’ll be crushed.”  
“You can’t tell of us, you’ll soon be hushed.”  
“Billy.”  
“And Willy.”  
“We’re the Screwloose Brothers, the Team Rocket Scientists.”  
“Mess with us and feel our Pokémon’s fists.”  

I wasn’t impressed, what was it about having a dumb motto?  
“We’re here to rescue Abby’s Pokémon, and any other Pokémon you’re testing 
on!”  
“You mean this Butterfree?” they both asked confidently.  
They stood aside and a capsule with a Butterfree connected to a bunch of wires 
was in our sight.  
Looking around, many other Pokémon were having the same experiment done, they 
looked like they were suffering.  
“Oh by the way, we knew all along it was your Butterfree, that's why we stole 
it while you had the old man babysit it.” said Billy.  
“Its experiencing a world of pain.” added Willy.  
“We won’t let you hurt Pokémon anymore!” I shouted.  
“That’s right!” added Emily.  
“I guess so...” finished Abby.  
“Hey bro, they think they can actually win.” mused Billy.  
“We’ll show ‘em!” shouted Willy.  
“Sever! Magnetrio!”  
“Parasite! Twinbeak!”  
“Kokekoke!”  
“Mag-Na-Ton!!!”  
“Parrrras!”  
“Waaaakkk!!!”  
“Get them!!!” they both shouted.  
The Screwloose Pokémon were too far away to record, and being an awkward time, 
I couldn’t use the Pokédex on them yet, but I knew what they were like.  
We needed to work together.  
“Water, Electric, Flying, Normal, Bug and Grass...  Go, Psychot, Inferno and 
Needle.” I said in a slightly loud voice.  
“Go, Poisoness, Discharge, and Miles.” said Emily.  
“Foxfire, Pixie, Nightmare.” listed Abby dropping her balls to the floor.  
The new one in Abby’s squad was a mean looking Drowsee.  
“Psychot, Inferno, work together to defeat that Paras!”  
“Ku-dabra!”  
“Char!” said Inferno spitting a flame.  
“Inferno!” I moaned, “This is important!”  
He spat a flame which set the Paras on fire, then sat down and scratched his 
ear, both the Paras’s types were weak against Fire.  
At least Inferno helped a little since this could be a dangerous battle.  
“Thank you Inferno, Needle, you fight that Doduo.”  
“Poisoness, help Needle, Discharge and Miles, you fight that Krabby.”  
“Nightmare...  Foxfire...  Pixie...  I suppose you should all fight the 
Magneton.”  

A large battle started with our Pokémon ganging up on theirs since this was an 
unofficial battle and we were sure they wouldn’t play by the rules.  
“At least she didn’t use the rhino this time...” muttered Billy to Willy.  
We all watched and let our Pokémon do the fighting.  
“Waaaak!!!”  
The Doduo was being outnumbered by the poisonous pair, Poisoness and Needle.  
Those two worked well with each other and were growling and leering at the two 
headed bird before tackling it, followed by a Poison Sting from both, the Doduo 
had trouble working together with its other head.  
“Kokekoke!”  
Miles fell back as the little crab tried to Crab Hammer him down, then 
Discharge shocked him.  
Psychot, in theory, had the disadvantage, but thanks to Inferno, he stood a 
chance.  
Psychot teleported as it tried to use Leech Life, appeared behind it, and 
extending a hand, used its Confusion attack.  
Abby’s Stage 1 Pokémon had a lot of work to do against the Stage 2 Magneton.  
Supersonic waves were emitted, hurting her Clefairy, but the Vulpix used its 
Quick Attack and hit it from behind.  
Turning its attention to the fox, it was then attacked by the Drowsee, they 
worked like a team, but that still didn’t answer why Abby could be so withdrawn 
and not her Pokémon.  
When I thought about it, Pokémon could take on certain characteristics of their 
trainer, while the Rhyhorn, and apparently the Drowsee, acted like her 
withdrawn self, the other three was quite cheerful, perhaps the cold, calm, 
emotionless personality was all an act.  
With all this going on, it would be up to us to get by and rescue the Pokémon.  
The brothers were busy watching the battle so I ran forward, pushed by them and 
pulled the plug on the Butterfree’s machine.  
The currents stopped and the Butterfree regained its strength and pulled itself 
loose.  
“What’s he doing?!”  
“Stop that!”  
“Butterfree, I know I’m not your trainer, but will you help out so everyone can 
escape?”  
It stared me in the face.  
“Tetsubo, try calling it by its name, its Flutter.” shouted Abby yet holding on 
to those emotions she appeared to hide away.  
“Flutter, help us out here.”  
“We’ll get you!” shouted Willy as the brothers charged towards me.  
“Please Flutter, use Whirlwind.”  
“Freeeee...  Freefreeeee...”  it said flapping its wings fast, I stood behind 
it as the winds blew the brothers backwards.  
“Twinbeak! Forget the Pokémon, get that brat and the Butterfree, they’re too 
close to our experiment!” shouted Willy.  
The Doduo shot a look at us, the Nidorans pounced and were shot back by a 
powerful Tri Attack, the Doduo leaped over the battles and charged towards us.  
“Flutter, use Stun Spore.”  
“Freeeee!”  
Twinbeak was too fast and ‘Fury Attacked’, the little butterfly flew into a 
metal console.  
“Watch out!” I shouted.  
The bird heads were spinning around turning their beaks into drills, Flutter 
flew up and they collided with the console, a small tremor knocked me back.  
When I came to, the console was tipping over, and would undoubtedly crush me.  
“Freefree!”  
I was pushed aside by the Butterfree who was now under the collapsing console.  
“Inferno! Please be responsible and use Flamethrower!”  
“Char!”  
It put its hands in the air as if confused, then breathed its flame to keep the 
console up while I grabbed Flutter, the console fell over and unfortunately 
Inferno’s flame continued and hit a wire cable holding up some heavy 
machinery.  
“Inferno, Ret-”  
A huge cube of machinery hit the floor and cut me and Flutter off from the 
others, almost.  

“Waaaaak!”  
The Doduo leaped right over and we were trapped with it.  
I needed a plan, perhaps the Pokédex could help:  

“Doduo, the Twin Bird Pokémon.  This ostrich-like Pokémon is born with two 
heads, its short wings make it difficult to fly but it is capable of running 
speeds of 60 miles per hour.”  

“So all I’ve got is that it can’t fly, but it leaps quite far.  Flutter, give 
it the Poison Powder!”  
“Frrreeefrreeee!”  
“Waaaakk!”  
It fell back immersed in the purple dust but leaped back up and a triangle of 
red, yellow and blue charged up.  
“Watch out Flutter, its the Tri Attack!”  
“Waaaak!”  
We were in too small an area to avoid it and both of us received some damage.  
“Waaaak!” screamed the Doduo leaping forward, I tried to shield the Butterfree 
but he wouldn’t let me and used another Whirlwind attack, Twinbeak couldn’t 
avoid it and smashed into the fallen console, it stepped up once more for 
another Tri Attack, then the poison kicked in.  
The beam shot up high missing us.  
“Flutter, quickly fly us out of here!”  
It took a look at me to decide whether it should do this for me.  
“Free!” it said tilting its head back.  
I held on to its foot gently, unsure if it could handle my weight, I was 
surprised as we launched upwards, another piece of debris fell down into the 
area we were in.  
And the Doduo leaped after us.  
“Flutter, a Confusion attack should do it.”  
“Freefreeeee!”  
An invisible blast hit the Doduo and sent him crashing down.  
“Good work Flutter, now we should-”  
I gasped, another piece of debris was falling, too late to avoid it.  
A large flame blasted it away, Inferno stood proud and put a thumbs or in his 
case, claws up, he still cared, even if he wouldn’t always battle for me.  
We landed, and the battle was over, the brothers were high-tailing it out of 
here with their Pokémon.  
“You haven’t seen the last of us!...”  
“Pokémon are there to experiment on!...”  
But it wasn’t all peaceful, the place was collapsing.  
“Get the Pokémon out of here now!” shouted Emily.  
“Inferno, please, use Slash to cut all the plugs.”  
He did, and now the power was off.  
“Psychot, break the wires keeping the Pokémon!”  
“Ku-da-brra!”  
With a sharp click, each Pokémon was free, a little dizzy, but they made their 
way out as did we, leaving the collapsing warehouse behind us.  

Later, after bringing the Pokémon to Cerulean City, Officer Jenny took them to 
their trainers, and our job was done.  
“Tetsubo...  I don’t really know how to say this but...” said Abby nervously 
while Emily looked suspiciously at her, as if she was going to admit her 
undying love to me or something.  
“I don’t have a sponsor, and my party’s kinda’ full, I’d... appreciate it if 
you took care of Flutter, he seems to like you.”  
“Well, if you trust me that much, then sure I will, we worked pretty well back 
there, didn’t we Flutter?”  
“Freefreeee!”  
“So Abby, where are you off to now?”  
“I’ll be continuing my journey...”  
“Alone? You could always-”  
“Tetsubo...”  
“Don’t worry Green, I prefer being alone.”  
“Maybe we’ll see you around then...”  
“Maybe...” she said leaving, perhaps guilty for leaving Flutter behind, there 
was more to that girl than meets the eye.  
Throwing my Pokéball forward, Flutter flew into it and inside, it was the end 
of another tough day of fighting Rockets, we departed to the Pokémon Centre for 
a well earned rest.  

End of Chapter 17B  

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